West Bengal govt outreach plan with eye on senior citizens in housing complexes

KOLKATA: To bridge the information gap, civic bodies and police in Kolkata, Salt Lake, New Town and Howrah will start a high-rise ‘census’ to identify and reach out to elderly people staying alone. The state government has also appealed to housing societies to help them to reach out to these people.

CM Mamata Banerjee, in a cabinet meeting on Thursday, had stressed on the need to reach out to elderly people living alone instead of reacting to emergencies.
Alapan Bandyopadhyay, the state home secretary and Kolkata’s Covid nodal officer, state urban development minister Firhad Hakim, Kolkata police commissioner Anuj Sharma, along with their counterparts in Salt Lake, NKDA, Howrah and North 24-Parganas, held a meeting in Kolkata on Friday. Bandyopadhyay told reporters: “Housing societies and gated communities are often inaccessible to ASHA and KMC workers. There is an information gap. There is a need to reach out to elderly people living in these high-rises, many of whom stay alone. Police and KMC officials will collate all information regarding them ward wise. We will also inform them about the numbers to reach out to in case of emergency. We also seek help from the resident welfare associations to help us.”
In the meeting it was decided that police-run initiatives ‘Pronam’ in Kolkata, ‘Sanjh Batih’ in Salt Lake and New Town and ‘Shraddha’ in Howrah, will be integrated to help the state health department with a primary database.
The KMC Covid-response team, ward coordinators and local police stations have been asked to conduct a survey of city’s housing complexes, especially those in the containment zones, to get first-hand information about elderly citizens — their phone numbers, health conditions and the kind of requirements they have. Be it providing ambulances for hospitalization or reaching essentials at their doorsteps or simply arranging for a doctor for a health check-up, the KMC health team, ward coordinators or police teams will keep a constant vigil, Bandyopadhyay said.
“Its an excellent initiative since there are several elderly residents in our apartment, including me. Our apartment has been in a containment zone on multiple occasions but thankfully, there has been no medical emergencies yet. But if we get full-fledged emergency support from the government, it will be extremely helpful,” said Hasmukh Kundalia, the vice-president of Rameshwaram Apartment in Bhowanipore.
Debjani Mukherjee, director of Urbana facility management that has also had several Covid patients in the last few months, also welcomed the move. “We have been providing regular support in terms of reaching daily essentials to elderly residents’ doorsteps, deputing housekeeping personnel in the absence of maids and offering medical assistance. But the government initiative is always welcome,” she said.
Greenwood Sonata in New Town, the first high-rise to start a full-fledged Covid care unit on the premises, also appreciated the government move. “The move is extremely timely as the elderly residents had started talking about what the government had been doing of them. We have all arrangements ready at our complex to help the seniors but at times, younger residents are not available at the complex. If we have ready emergency support from the administration, it will certainly help,” said Sudipta Mukherjee, president of the housing complex.